Total beginners guide to guns

Updated August 7, 2017

By John Ramey

If you’re brand new to guns and want a non-political, rational, easy introduction, then this guide is for you. It’s the ultimate one-page guide that covers all the basics, along with practical tips for you to get started.

Maybe you thought you’d never even own a gun until recently. Or, you fired your cousin’s shotgun out at the farm that one time 20 years ago. Even though firearm sales are down since the election of Donald Trump, a whole new wave of formerly anti-gun liberals or people who’ve just never cared before have started buying firearms in record numbers.

Regardless of politics or background, all of you are welcome at The Prepared. We believe in safe, sane, and rational approaches to firearms, and we think more people should learn the basics, even if just to understand this often misunderstood world.

In this guide we do not touch on the politics of guns, their role in preparing for emergencies, or next-level stuff like zeroing or accessories. There will be other articles in the future for those topics.

This page is a work in progress – stay tuned for updates!The Prepared is a new site and our experts are working quickly to release lots of great content. While we’re working on the full version of this page, here’s some starter info to help you in the meantime.

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Important gun safety rules

Before we talk about anything else, you must commit to these simple but very important rules:

Treat every firearm as if it’s loaded.

Only point the firearm at things you are willing to destroy.

Only put your finger on the trigger / inside the trigger guard when you are safely ready to fire.

Always be sure of your target and what’s behind it.

It is your responsibility that firearms are safe, secure, and locked away from people or children who shouldn’t get to them.

There are 1.7 million children in the US that live in homes with loaded but unlocked firearms. There are often serious legal punishments if you are careless with a gun, like leaving a loaded gun where a small child can access it. Don’t be stupid.

A gun is just a hunk of metal and plastic. Modern, quality firearms do not just fire on their own, even if dropped or bumped. Human error is the cause of 99.99% of gun accidents. The core rules are basically abstinence for guns – if you don’t point loaded weapons at things you shouldn’t destroy, then you can avoid almost all the problems to begin with.

Basic firearm lingo

To understand guns, it’s helpful to start by understanding bullets.

What many people call a bullet is actually called a “round” (like a “round” of drinks) or “cartridge.” But you’ll still hear people use the word “bullet” as slang for the whole package.

The bullet is specifically the part of the round that is meant to fly down the barrel to your target.

Other parts of the round are the casing, which is typically brass, steel, or plastic. Sometimes people just call that part the “brass,” and it ties everything together, holding the primer, gunpowder, and bullet together until the exploding gunpowder forces the bullet to separate from the casing.

Inside the casing is gunpowder. On the back of the casing is the primer, which is like a little spark plug that ignites the gunpowder inside the casing.

Shotgun ammunition is a little different because it fires lots of little projectiles instead of one bullet. That’s why shotguns are used in bird hunting – it’d be too hard to hit a flying bird with just one pellet, so you fire a bunch of pellets at once that spray out in a larger zone.

Shotgun ammunition is called a “shell,” or “shotshell.” But the principles are the same. You have a casing with a primer, gunpowder, and then the projectiles that are launched down the barrel.

A gun itself can have lots of pieces and names, like “buffer tube” and “bore.” But for now we’ll focus on the most basic names:

Barrel. The long tube the bullets fly down. The longer the barrel, the more stable (and usually faster) the bullet will be when it comes out.

Trigger.

Magazine. If the gun uses a detachable container to hold the ammunition, that’s called a magazine. Not a ‘clip’. Sometimes the magazine fits inside the gun, like inside the grip of a pistol, or it attaches to the outside of the gun.

Stock or buttstock. On rifles and shotguns, this is the part you put up against your shoulder when firing.

Grip or pistol grip. The part of a pistol you hold in your primary hand’s palm. Some rifles and shotguns also have a pistol grip in addition to the buttstock, where you hold it against your shoulder and hold a vertical grip with your dominant hand.

Safety. A mechanical lever that blocks the gun from firing.

How guns work

The purpose of a gun is to accelerate an object (like the heavy piece of metal called the bullet) to very high speeds so that it can hit something far away with enough force to destroy it.

How that happens is similar to how a car engine works. Gasoline goes into a small space, the spark plug causes it to explode, and that expanding gas can only push in one direction, forcing the piston to move, which eventually turns your wheels.

When you pull the trigger of a gun, a spring-loaded piece of metal strikes the back of the round on something called the primer. The primer is like an engine spark plug. This causes a spark inside the casing where the gunpowder is held, creating an explosion.

Explosions want to expand, but the explosion is trapped inside the casing. So the ammo is designed to give that expanding gas only one place to go. The explosion pushes against the back of the bullet, forcing it to separate from the casing. This catapults the bullet down the barrel and leaves the casing behind.

Almost every gun is built around that principle. The differences between guns are things like how they load the ammo into the barrel and what size ammo they use.

Types of guns

Pistols or handguns. They are small and can be held in one hand. Good for targets 1-10 meters away.

Shotguns. They have long barrels and require two hands. You might have seen them in use by hunters or people who shoot clay pigeons (the sport where people yell “pull!”) Good for targets 1-75 meters away.

Rifles. These are large, long barreled guns that take a lot of different shapes. They are held up against a shoulder and fired with both hands. Good for targets 100-500 or more meters away.

Each type of gun uses it’s own type of bullets. You can’t put ammunition for a shotgun into a pistol, and so on.

Pistols are used when people want something small and light. Which is why police officers carry them on their hip at all times or people carry pistols tucked inside their pant waist.

There is a trade-off though. In order to be small and light, their barrels must be shorter and the bullets must be less powerful. This means that pistols are effective at very close range, like 1-20 feet, but they are not good for shooting longer distances.

Single action vs. semi-automatic vs. fully automatic

Labels like “semi-automatic” or “full auto” refer to how the gun performs a full cycle or “action.” A cycle is the process that starts with loading a round through firing it and removing the spent casing.

Think about the original guns back in the 1700-1800s. You’ve seen in movies how people would fire one shot, then take an absurd amount of time to reload the gun with the next bullet. Fire, manually reload, fire, manually reload, repeat.

Those are single-shot guns, formally known as “single action.” You manually load a round and cock the gun, pull the trigger, and that’s it. The gun doesn’t “do” anything else once it’s fired.

There are still guns like that today. For example, some precision snipers will use this style to reduce the number of moving pieces to keep the gun more stable while they aim and fire.

With semi-autos you pull the trigger, the gun fires, the gun cycles itself, and is ready to fire the next time you pull the trigger. You don’t have to do anything else.

This was the fundamental innovation that took us from the old Civil War-style guns to modern ones. The semi-auto gun is designed to use the gas and energy created by the gunpowder explosion to move various pieces that kick out the spent casing and load in a new one. So it becomes a loop that ‘feeds’ itself every time the trigger is pulled and released.

Fully automatic is basically the same thing as semi-automatic, but you can just hold the trigger down once and the gun will keep firing and cycling itself until you release the trigger.

A well trained person using a semi-auto gun can fire up to 100 rounds per minute. Just try and see how fast you can twitch your trigger finger. In reality, you might fire 50 rounds per minute with a semi-auto if you really needed to.

The types of full-autos that civilians can (very rarely) own are able to fire 300-900 rounds per minute. Military versions can fire up to 4,000 rounds per minute.

This is why most full autos are illegal for civilians. If you have to pull the trigger for each bullet, that theoretically makes things ‘safer’ than if you could just squeeze once and send a lot of bullets firing very quickly.

“Assault rifles”, “assault weapons”, AR-15s, and AK-47s

We’re specifically calling out these labels because even though they are often used in gun control conversations and by the media and politicians, there are some serious misunderstandings that create roadblocks in the conversation.

Sometimes these are called “black guns” or “black rifles” because they’re usually a flat black color. This somehow makes them seem more aggressive or dangerous. But make no mistake: a tactical, military-style rifle and a quaint wooden hunting rifle can be equally deadly.

“Assault weapon” is a made-up term. In spirit, people who use it are typically trying to categorize guns that are built more for fighting, and less for precision target shooting or hunting. That doesn’t make them inherently more “evil,” it just means they’re built for a particular job, such as home defense.

“Assault rifle” actually does have a proper definition, but it has been misused so often that, in practice, most people using that label are trying to communicate the same thing as “assault weapon”. In reality, an assault rifle must have certain criteria, such as “select fire” functionality that lets the user switch from semi-auto to full-auto mode — but those features are already very strictly controlled by law, so very few civilians actually have an assault rifle.

None of the weapons used in any recent mass shooting event are actually assault rifles. That’s not a political statement, it’s just fact.

An AR-15 is technically not an assault rifle. Nor does the “AR” stand for Assault Rifle. It actually stands for “ArmaLite rifle,” with ArmaLite being the company that first designed this gun. Over time, it became the most popular rifle platform in the western world and hundreds of companies now make their own variations of the AR-15 design. You can buy an AR-15 part from one company and it will usually work with an AR-15 part from another company.

So the name AR-15 has become one of those ubiquitous names like Kleenex or Xerox, and it morphed over time to mean any rifle based on that design. This term is often misused by the media and politicians when referring to any rifle that looks “black” or different than an old-school wooden hunting rifle.

The AR-15 is the civilian equivalent of the military’s M4 or M16, the standard issue rifle for US front line soldiers since the Vietnam War.

AR-15s are typically semi-automatic rifles. It is extremely rare for someone to have an automatic AR-15.

Their magazines usually hold 10, 20, or 30 rounds of ammunition, although it can be as little as 3 and as high as 100. Many states regulate the capacity of the magazine as a way to prevent someone from just spraying lots of bullets in a crime.

An AK-47 is basically the Russian equivalent of the AR-15. It has many design differences but fulfills the same role for shooters. The AK-47 was cheap to make and maintain, which was important in the Soviet Union. It became very popular in the former Soviet countries and has since spread on the black market to be the weapon of choice for Middle Eastern terrorists, African warlords, and civilians in many countries.

Ammunition types and calibers

Within the same category of gun (pistol, shotgun, rifle), the biggest difference from one gun to the next is the caliber of the ammunition.

Caliber basically means the size of the round. Numbers like “5.56” or “.203” are referring to the widest diameter of the bullet. There are other measurements that matter as well, such as the length of the casing, so sometimes you’ll see a label like “9×19” which means the diameter is 9mm and the length is 19mm.

Unfortunately, caliber won’t always be measured in millimeters or even follow a logical pattern. Because America is stubborn and refuses to join the rest of the world, sometimes things are measured in imperial and sometimes in metric.

You’ll eventually learn the equivalent matches, like how the .223 inch imperial measurement is essentially the same as the 5.56 mm metric measurement.

Sometimes you’ll see NATO in the name, which refers to the NATO military organization. Basically all of the western world has standardized so their militaries can fight using the same ammo. A 5.56 NATO round just means it’s the standard round NATO uses.

Sometimes the differences seem small, like the 9 millimeter round vs the 10 millimeter round. But these are precision built machines with exploding parts, so every fraction of a millimeter matters.

There will often be a word or name after the numerical part of the caliber, like “.223 Remington.” This usually refers to the person or company who originally designed the round. For example, Remington is a gun company and designed the popular .223 Remington round used in AR-15s. But you don’t have to use that round in a Remington gun and plenty of non-Remington companies now make the .223 round.

The differences in size create real differences in how the round fires and performs. Ammo will be designed based on desired qualities like distance, speed, force, loudness, etc.

Calibers are one of those endless debate things that internet forums continually argue about. Most of it is based on myth and folklore.

You’ll probably run across debates about “stopping power”, which refers to how a bullet can stop whatever you’ve shot at. Some bullets create little holes, some create big holes, some shard into little fragments, etc.

Trust us when we say you should ignore almost all of that for now.

We will release full articles in the future just about different calibers and when to use each one. But for now we’re keeping it simple and those differences don’t matter until you become an expert who wants to optimize and specialize.

Pistol

There are almost 200 different pistol calibers. But there are only a few that are popular, and even fewer that will matter to you as a new shooter and prepper.

The most common pistol calibers are:

.22 Long Rifle

9mm

.380 ACP

.40 S&W

.45 ACP

The best round for most new shooters is the 9mm, formally known as the 9x19mm Luger or 9x19mm Parabellum.

Frankly, the 9mm round is probably the best pistol caliber for almost any prepper, regardless of experience. Personally speaking, I have owned pistols across all of those popular calibers, but over time I’ve standardized all of my prepping gear to 9mm.

It is one of the most common rounds used by police forces and militaries around the world. The FBI recently switched all of their agents over to the 9mm after decades of research.

The 9mm is an excellent mix of the things you would care about in an emergency situation. It’s extremely popular, so you’re more likely to find it for purchase in normal life and when scavenging after SHTF.

It’s easy to handle for new shooters and won’t kick you back on your butt. People will often describe the 9mm as fun to shoot because it packs power but doesn’t make you feel like you’re holding a cannon in your hand. As a new shooter, you want to learn control, so having something you can handle without intimidation is important.

It is a smaller round than the other popular calibers, which means you can fit more rounds into the same sized magazine.

Until you become an award winning crack shot, being able to hit your target is more important than how hard the bullet hits your target or if the wound is 10% larger. That’s a big reason the FBI made the switch — they found that it’s better to have 15 rounds of a bullet with 90% stopping power than 8 rounds of a bullet with 95% stopping power.

If you’re extremely nervous about handling a firearm, or maybe you want to teach your children in the 8-15 age range, the best caliber choice is the .22 Long Rifle.

It is the weakest of the popular calibers and, to be honest, the butt of many gun jokes. But the 22 LR is a great way to start, especially for children, because the gun will barely move when you fire it.

Rifle

There are at least 300 rifle calibers. These five are the most popular:

.22 Long Rifle

.223 Remington (5.56x45mm NATO)

.308 Winchester (7.62x51mm NATO)

.30-06 Springfield

.30-30 Winchester

Notice the .22 LR is in both the pistol and rifle lists. It’s a unique round used for target practice and training for new shooters, but is special in how it works and underpowered when you’re in an emergency situation. The same advice applies – if you want to start very cautiously and/or with children, the .22 LR is a great place to start.

The two most common rounds and what we would recommend for new shooters are the .223 and .308 rounds.

They also happen to be the most popular, because the .223 is for AR-15s and the .308 is for AR-10s (a bigger version of the AR-15, even though the number is smaller).

Just like the 9mm pistol round, the .223 is used by frontline soldiers because it’s smaller and they can carry more of it, but still packs a punch and can travel a decent distance at high speed. The .223 round is excellent at 100 meters to 300 meters. Although technically different, you can think of the .223 round as the same as the 5.56x45mm NATO round.

The .308 round is a bigger round that packs more punch over long distances. The rifles that shoot .308 are typically heavier, bigger, and are great for targets at 100 to 600 meters. The .308 is essentially the same as the 7.62x51mm NATO round.

The other rounds tend to be popular specifically for things like hunting or precision competition shooting. But for everyday people and survival situations, the risk of having too many calibers isn’t worth the benefits a more niche specialized round might give you.

Shotgun

When you look at pistol and rifle ammo side by side, they basically look the same but in different sizes.

Shotgun ammo is quite different because instead of sending one bullet through the air the way pistols and rifles do, shotguns spray multiple smaller pellets in a wider range.

That’s why shotguns have been so popular for close quarters self defense and bird hunting. If someone breaks into your home at night and you shoot at them down the hallway, you’re more likely to hit them with the big cone of sprayed shot than if you used a pistol.

But you’re also more likely to hit other things, too, and the effective distance drops off pretty quickly. There are various pros and cons to shotguns in emergency situations, but we’ll cover them in a future guide.

The terminology is different too. Instead of caliber, shotshells are measured by “gauge.” Instead of bullets, a shotgun sprays “shot” and have extra words like “00 buckshot” or “birdshot” that refer to the size and number of the pellets that are shot through the air.

Thankfully there are only about eight shotgun calibers. These two are the most popular:

12 gauge

20 gauge

In yet another example of ammunition labeling craziness, the 12 gauge is bigger than the 20 gauge.

We recommend the 12 gauge for most people.

It is by far the most popular shotgun round in America, with over 50% of total shotgun and ammo sales. Plus, there are a wide range of useful options for 12 gauge rounds that shoot things from lots of tiny little pellets to fire breathing “dragon’s breath” to two big ball bearings with a steel cable between them.

Some people prefer the 20 gauge because it has less recoil. We think that if recoil is that big of a concern, for preparedness reasons you’d want to go with something other than a shotgun altogether. So the benefits of the 12 gauge, like better power and distance, win out over the 20’s easier handling.

Shotshells have different lengths. The most common lengths are 2.75 and 3 inches. Many shotguns can shoot both, since the only difference is the length but not the diameter. We don’t have a recommendation between them — just be sure you’re not putting the wrong length into a shotgun that wasn’t built for it.

How to buy a gun

Legal process

Different states and cities have wildly different laws about the types of guns you can buy, who can buy them, what you can do with them, and so on. Some places like San Francisco, Chicago, and D.C. try to ban most or all guns altogether.

Be sure to google for your local laws. Wikipedia has a nice breakdown summary by state.

Some general requirements:

Over 21. Some areas allow people 18-21 to buy rifles and shotguns for hunting.

Have not been convicted of a felony.

Have not been declared mentally incompetent.

Are not using medications or drugs that will impair your ability.

In almost all cases there will be a criminal background check. You’ll fill out a form and the store will run you through a federal database that usually only takes a few minutes to verify.

Note that even if you live in a state with legal marijuana, it’s still a crime at the federal level to use marijuana and own guns. These forms will ask if you are a user of illegal drugs including marijuana. There are no drug tests or verification.

Every gun has a serial number. Some states require you to register your gun and serial number in a government database.

Some states require a waiting or “cooling off” period, which means you pick your gun, pay for it, and do the background check, but then you can’t take it home for a while. The political thinking is that if someone is angry and walks into a store to buy a gun, by making them wait 7-10 days to carry it home they will cool off and not commit whatever crime they were intending.

Again, check your local laws.

Go to your local gun shop

For new shooters, we always recommend starting at your local gun store. You get the benefit of a friendly face who can answer any questions, and you can try different things before buying.

Don’t be intimidated by going into a gun shop. Even if you’re the most peace-and-love liberal with your Bernie 2020 shirt on, any store worth your business will treat you with the same respect as a gun-totin’ cowboy.

Thankfully, the vast majority of legit businesses conduct themselves this way. If they don’t, then say thank you, leave, and share your experience on Yelp.

Don’t be ashamed of being new. They love new shooters because you’re a new customer that will keep buying new toys. Just say you’re new at this and looking for help.

Don’t buy online or from private parties (yet)

Guns take a lot of abuse during their life from all the explosions, cleaning chemicals, moving parts, and rough days in the field. It can be hard for you to tell if a used gun is in good shape, even when looking in person.

It’s generally fine to buy a used gun from a gun store because they will help you if there are any defects or lemons.

Avoid buying any gun, new or used, from private parties through sites like Craigslist or GunBroker. There are bonafide people and good deals in those marketplaces, but as a new shooter you probably don’t know enough yet to spot the really bad deals, and once you find out it’s probably too late.

Try before you buy

We believe that there are clear “best of” winners when it comes to guns. Especially for emergency preparedness scenarios where things like quality, durability, and performance really matter.

But there is still value in touching and feeling a gun. Particularly with pistols, where the grip in your hand can be very different from one to another.

Some gun stores and shooting ranges allow people to rent various guns. If you’re able to, this is always a good idea before spending at least a few hundred dollars on your own gun.

This page is a stub – more coming soon!While our researchers are working on releasing a full version of this article, here’s some starter info to help while you wait. Let us know you’re interested by commenting below or saying hi: FacebookTwitterhello@theprepared.com

Thank you for this information. I have never owned a gun and have only ever fired a paintball gun – once. And I was pretty awful at it. I am currently thinking that I would never ever want a gun in my house, but I would like to learn how to shoot. I also wanted to learn more about guns after reading all the news, opinions, and rants from both sides after the latest school shooting. You are true to your word and stayed out of the political/emotional firestorm. I learned quite a bit in this one quick read. Thank you.

Very glad you found it helpful. I’m itching to improve this article, especially in light of recent events, but not enough time in the day yet 🙁

What additional info would you like to see added?

I applaud you for wanting to better understand firearms, even though you may never own one.

In order for things like political conversations to be productive, everyone needs to be speaking the same language and referencing the same correct facts. For example, too many in the media refer to “automatic assault weapons” when they simply aren’t.

Agree. Now I know that ‘assault rifle’ is an emotional term, yet I still hear it used even by some gun owners ?!

I am trying to understand what sort of middle ground would work. I guess that is the million dollar question!

Gun regulation/control proponents talk about making the process to purchase guns the same across all states – like licensing, background checks, yearly renewals, etc. It sounds logical, but I wonder what the down sides are – HIPPA laws regarding one’s mental health being marked in some national data base? State rights vs Fed rights? How much ‘infringement’ is OK? Are gun rights proponents OK with current infringements on gun ownership? Background checks, the ban of automatic weapons? Are we already in the middle ground and any further move leaves the middle now?

What about insuring guns, like we do with cars and homes? Any gun used to illegally kill someone, the owner’s insurance company pays for funeral costs. Then insurance companies would have a vested interest in background checks and keeping those data bases current.

Yet, the 2nd Amendment states ‘no infringement’ – we certainly do not follow that right now – and I am glad of it. I would not want fully automatic weapons in the hands of citizens. Yet, how has Congress justified this infringement but not other infringements?

That article gets a lot of things wrong. For one, it’s individually bearable military grade weapons that are well suited for resisting invasion or oppression that are exactly the weapons the 2nd covers and conveys an individual right to keep and bear. That’s things like automatic rifles with large clips, etc.

To get to the truth of the situation you have to go back to a time before the 2nd was controversial to get the actual right that it conveyed. The following analysis from Cooley gets it mostly right even though there are some things that he didn’t get into. For instance, most people don’t know that the 2nd amendment was only put into the bill of rights to keep from establishing a preference for a particular religion. The right to keep and bear military weapons came to us from the English Bill of Rights but it was only technically applied to protestants. That would have been grandfathered into US law had it not been addressed specifically by the 2nd amendment. The founders did not want to establish a preference for the protestant religions. Most people don’t realize that the 1st clause of the 2nd amendment was a guarantee to the states that they could keep their militias and doesn’t modify or restrict the 2nd clause in any way. The southern states weren’t going to ratify the constitution unless they were guaranteed they could keep their militias to protect the institution of slavery.

“Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cooley was the leading constitutional commentator of the late 1800s; he wrote a treatise entitled A Treatise on Constitutional Limitations (1868), which he then revised many times over the next three decades, and an abridgment entitled Principles of Constitutional Law (1898)

What follows is Cooley’s analysis of the 2nd amendment.

“The Constitution. — By the Second Amendment to the Constitution it is declared that “a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The amendment, like most other provisions in the Constitution, has a history. It was adopted with some modification and enlargement from the English Bill of Rights of 1688, where it stood as a protest against arbitrary action of the overturned dynasty in disarming the people, and as a pledge of the new rulers that this tyrannical action should cease. The right declared was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and as a necessary and efficient means of regaining rights when temporarily overturned by usurpation.

The Right is General. — It may be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been elsewhere explained, consists of those persons who, under the law, are liable to the performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon. But the law may make provision for the enrolment of all who are fit to perform military duty, or of a small number only, or it may wholly omit to make any provision at all; and if the right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of this guaranty might be defeated altogether by the action or neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear arms implies something more than the mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in doing so the laws of public order.

Standing Army. — A further purpose of this amendment is, to preclude any necessity or reasonable excuse for keeping up a standing army. A standing army is condemned by the traditions and sentiments of the people, as being as dangerous to the liberties of the people as the general preparation of the people for the defence of their institutions with arms is preservative of them.

What Arms may be kept. — The arms intended by the Constitution are such as are suitable for the general defence of the community against invasion or oppression, and the secret carrying of those suited merely to deadly individual encounters may be prohibited.”

– “Agree. Now I know that ‘assault rifle’ is an emotional term, yet I still hear it used even by some gun owners ?!”

That’s because the author’s claim that…

““Assault Rifle” is not a clearly defined term and is more of a marketing or political label.”

…is patently false. He seems to be confusing the term “assault rifle” with “assault weapon”, with the latter being the actual ill-defined “marketing or political label”. The term “assault rifle” is actually fairly well-defined, and is based on the distinguishing characteristics of the rifle that gave us that term….the WWII German “Sturmgewehr 44” (literally translated into English as “Storm Rifle”, with “Storm” being used in the sense of “storming”…or assaulting….an enemy position, hence “assault rifle”). The characteristics of an assault rifle are:

– Has fire-control selectability between semi-auto and full-auto/burst modes.– Uses an intermediate-power cartridge.– Uses a detachable box magazine as the ammunition-feeding source.– Has an effective range of >= 300 meters.

So, no…not an undefined term at all. The absence of the first characteristic (select-fire capability) is why AR-15s and other civilian-legal rifles are not “assault rifles”, and why gun-control advocates apply the meaningless term “assault weapon” to it.

Please keep in mind that this is a total beginners guide. I understand the details about select fire etc (a family member is even an NFA / Class 3 FFL), but in this context the broad public hears and uses “assault weapon” and “assault rifle” interchangeably, especially with the misconception that AR-15 stands for Assault Rifle.

I have made some changes to the wording to be more precise without complicating it for a beginner audience.

I think you did a great job on this. The firearm community is very warm and welcoming but not always forgiving of new writers. If you are looking to build your knowledge base I would be happy to recommend some sources to you. I like your honest style and I’d like to see you succeed.

in Re: “Yet, how has Congress justified this infringement but not other infringements?”

There is a lot of information that would go into answering that question. But, to be brutally honest, it has never been justified. It’s simply been done. I did a lot of research on the 2nd amendment nearly 50 years ago when I was researching the morality of nuclear weapons.

The 2nd Amendment needs either to be modified or repealed because there aren’t many regulatory schemes (above and beyond not allowing felons to possess) that are consistent with the 2nd.

One of the most honest assessments of the 2nd amendment was one undertaken in the 1800’s before the 2nd became a source of such controversy and passionate disagreement. Here’s the way it was analyzed then by the leading constitutional scholar of the century.

”

“Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cooley was the leading constitutional commentator of the late 1800s; he wrote a treatise entitled A Treatise on Constitutional Limitations (1868), which he then revised many times over the next three decades, and an abridgment entitled Principles of Constitutional Law (1898)

What follows is Cooley’s analysis of the 2nd amendment.

“The Constitution. — By the Second Amendment to the Constitution it is declared that “a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The amendment, like most other provisions in the Constitution, has a history. It was adopted with some modification and enlargement from the English Bill of Rights of 1688, where it stood as a protest against arbitrary action of the overturned dynasty in disarming the people, and as a pledge of the new rulers that this tyrannical action should cease. The right declared was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and as a necessary and efficient means of regaining rights when temporarily overturned by usurpation.

The Right is General. — It may be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been elsewhere explained, consists of those persons who, under the law, are liable to the performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon. But the law may make provision for the enrolment of all who are fit to perform military duty, or of a small number only, or it may wholly omit to make any provision at all; and if the right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of this guaranty might be defeated altogether by the action or neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well regulated militia; for to bear arms implies something more than the mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in doing so the laws of public order.

Standing Army. — A further purpose of this amendment is, to preclude any necessity or reasonable excuse for keeping up a standing army. A standing army is condemned by the traditions and sentiments of the people, as being as dangerous to the liberties of the people as the general preparation of the people for the defence of their institutions with arms is preservative of them.

What Arms may be kept. — The arms intended by the Constitution are such as are suitable for the general defence of the community against invasion or oppression, and the secret carrying of those suited merely to deadly individual encounters may be prohibited.”

I think you’d do a valuable service to everyone if you would explain what “high-velocity” ammunition is and how it differs from “whatever you would call non-high-velocity” ammunition. I have read some articles about the incredible damage that is done to the human body with high-velocity ammunition and I think that in order to have rational calm discussion about ammunition, we all need to know more. In my interaction with reasonable gun owners, this seems to be an area where there is much common ground.

Thanks for the feedback Jill! Will add it to the list for the next update.

It’s a little bit of a false contrast though, or difficult to draw conclusions from. Differences in velocity are mostly due to the difference in round types. A pistol bullet might go 700-1,000 feet per second, whereas a rifle bullet will go 2,700-3,200 fps, simply because of their intended designs.

A rifle round needs to move quickly to stay stable and travel further, like if you’re hunting game 600 meters away.

There could even be a counterargument that a faster round is “safer” because it could go straight through with a “clean” wound channel. Whereas a slower bullet will tumble around inside a body, causing more havoc.

There’s been some advancements in lower velocity rifle ammunition, though. For example, I have a home defense rifle that intentionally shoots slower bullets at 1,000 fps (almost 70% slower than normal) so that if I ever needed to use it, there’s less risk of it piercing through my walls and hurting a neighbor. At that slow speed it’s only effective in open air to about 150 meters, and would tumble/fall after one layer of drywall.

Jill, the term ‘high velocity’ is relative like so many others in the firearm industry. If you can give an example with context I may be able to answer your questions or point you to someone smarter than myself. Otherwise, a mostly accurate rule of thumb is that speed rules. Even lightweight projectiles can deliver massive amounts of energy with enough velocity. Calibers, cartridges, projectiles and powder are all specifically designed to acheive a particular job. How much energy do you want / need at what distance? Should the projectile penetrate deeply through heavy muscle and bone against large game, should it disrupt violently and immediately to expend all of its energy on small bodied game or a mix so that it penetrates to the vitals of a two legged attacker without passing through him and endangering innocent people. You may be interested in this book ‘Understanding Firearm Ballistics, by Robert A. Rinker’

I have to say that this is a good, basic primer for beginners. A lot of shooters will nitpick and talk about possible / maybe and how this or that are wrong but this is a great article. Enough info to start conversations without overly technical detail. The only false bits are about shotguns. That is a weapon chock full ‘o smoke and myth and I’m sure that you’ll learn more before you do a write up on them. Keep the info coming and this site growing, I’ve really enjoyed the common sense approach y’all take.

Thanks for the kind words, and agreed that too many in the gun community (or any enthusiast community like knives, lights, etc.) are too hostile to newcomers and argue about things that don’t matter. However, what do you think is incorrect about shotguns?

After re reading, there only two things I would disagree with. A lot of people still believe that shotguns work like magic hallway sweepers. The pattern at 30′, which is longer than many residential hallways, may only be 5 or 6 inches so aiming is still necessary. The other point is about 20 gauges. The variety of ammo, especially exotics, is more limited than 12ga. but the basic variety that you need are available. They are great for smaller stature shooters that can’t get good body positioning with larger shotguns. Lastly, the 20ga. has only about 2/3 of the recoil but still delivers about 3/4 of the power of the 12ga. I hope this gives some food for thought.

I am 60 years old and expressed to my son in law (a krav maga instructor) yesterday about an interest to learn to shoot. He gave me his first lesson yesterday which was hands on with a training semi automatic pistol. Your article echoes much of what he told me. He also spent time on the parts of the gun and the names of each part…slide, chamber, magazine release, etc. I looked at your article with hopes of a diagram that I could review. He also taught me the way to hold the pistol including finger placement when loading/reloading the magazine. I was hoping for a diagram or short video of that to review. So those are my ideas of what I would like to see. The article is very good and perfect for me to review about calibers.One last question. What does “scavenging after a SHTF” mean?

Welcome Judy, kudos on wanting to learn more about firearms, and thanks for the suggestions. This is just a starter page — all of our guides are “work in progress” / continually updated — so we’ll update it over time with more info and visuals, including what you described. Sign up for the newsletter to receive updates: http://eepurl.com/c3wQuv

SHTF is an acronym (for “shit hit the fan”) some people use when talking about the most serious emergency scenarios. Imagine everything grinding to a halt for a while — in this context, you might need to look for (scavenge) ammunition around you. You’re more likely to find what you need if you’re looking for the most common types, rather than something more exotic that you can usually only find by directly ordering it from the internet.

If you do ever get around to updating this, I would love to learn about safe gun storage, especially in a preparedness context. I’m curious about security vs accessibility–for instance I’ve heard guns and ammunition should be stored separately, but that sounds like it would not be ideal in the event of a robbery. I’m also curious about particular recommendations for households with children.

Thanks for the input, and we’ll definitely cover those kinds of topics. I’m going through a gun safe purchase right now and am frustrated by the b.s. in the industry.

Storing ammo separately is a tough topic because it depends on personal views (eg. “I want to absolutely minimize the chance my teenager can use these”) and local storage requirement laws (which are only getting more restrictive).

IMHO it greatly depends on your household and children. The younger they are, the more immature/irresponsible they are, the less accustomed to / practiced they are with firearms, etc. would all affect my choices and cause me to keep things more locked down.

Yes, there’s little to no value in having a firearm for something like a home intruder if the ammo is stored in a locked box two floors away from where you’re sleeping.

Good beginning. Now, include a good discussion on the application of calibers to what’s hunted. Handgun calibers are good for defensive, close in (under 25 yards) contact for the most part. The larger calibers (.357 Magnum to 500 S&W magnum are often chosen for hunting animals including boars, deer, and cats (mountain lion, etc)…. Beginners need to know which firearm in which caliber(s) for a given set of circumstances…

Thank you very much for your valuable information. I learnt a lot. A lot misconceptions have been corrected. You are always cut to the chase. I would love to learn more about rifles and pistols. Especially about caliber, ballistic theory, windage, and long guns. I really appreciate your effort in preparing such a note.

I believe it is critical to indoctrinate those new to firearms with the principal of how easy it is to place the trajectory of the barrel in line with people or things you have no intention of destroying or killing. The safest way to accomplish this is the use of a dummy firearm. These realistic looking “fake guns” have the same feel and weight as actual firearms but cannot accept ammunition and are disabled or solid steel or plastic. Simply insert a brightly colored dowel down the barrel and secure it with tape. The trainee is then handed the dummy gun and instructed to not allow the dowel to cross over anyone or anything they do not wish to destroy. It will amaze you how often they “sweep” the dowel (simulating the path of a bullet) across a person or object without realizing it. This drill can also be accomplished with the use of a laser targeting beam attached to a dummy gun. As part of the drill, have trainees walk or move around into different rooms or environments without the dowel or beam toughing or sweeping across a fellow trainee. This drill should be continued over several sessions before handling actual firearms. This of course is my personal opinion (I do not consider myself a firearms expert and do not teach) and some experts may differ in their techniques.

I noticed in a comment that you asked for suggestions of what should be added.

I personally think it’s critical to practice with any firearm. So, it would be nice to see an article about how to practice. It’s different for me, for instance, if I’m practicing with my 9MM pistol, or my .30-30 rifle or my 12 gauge shotgun. So general information about how (and where) to practice with handguns, rifles and shotguns would be useful I think.

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